Take-Off
by Merina 2
Summary: "Glinda's voice rang out from the mob, a cry in the dark, but I hardly heard her over my own laughter, laughter, I'm flying, look at me, I'm the one you want, it's me, it's ME…!" - Elphaba's take-off during Defying Gravity. Drabble, Gelphie-friendship, musicalverse.


**This is more an experiment in Happy!Elphie than anything else. Well. Actually, more than _anything _else, this is a drabble that I've been working on and off on for about a year now, and decided I should quit editing to death and just post :) but it does feature some vaguely Happy!Victorious!Elphie, which makes a change from my normal style of writing her.**

**Inspired partly by some cut dialogue from the San Fransisco tryouts of the musical. Just a little piece - enjoy!**

* * *

_"I hope you're happy…my friend."_

* * *

"There she is, that's one of them!"

They dived for her, guns raised. Glinda squealed, tottering on two-inch heels as they swamped her. I almost choked out loud with rage – how _dare _they, how dare they go for her, Oz, I had to help, but if I was caught, and she had chosen her path, her path without me, and what could I _do –_

"Let go of me, please, let go of me -!"

No use. They weren't listening. But the broomstick was tugging me into the air, my feet paddling the ground, toes skimming, up, up, _up – _

"- let go of me, do you hear, let _go_ of me -!"

_- Glinda –_

I twisted; toppled; whirled to face them, to help, to _shout –_

"- _it's not her!_"

A crash. One of the guards had dropped his weapon. My hands flailed for the broomstick handle, trying to steady myself – _cursed Oz, what had I been thinking, levitating half a strip of mouldy wood as my escape route! -_ but inside my heart was leaping, crying out as the ground dropped away beneath me, oh, _oh –_

"- _she has nothing to do with it -!_"

"Where is she?" one soldier's voice bellowed, and I could see them running about like frightened mice – great, meaty, gun-bearing mice – eyes darting everywhere but up…_they couldn't find me_. They didn't know where to look! They were lost, stumbling, fumbling whilst I was _flying, _sweet Oz, I was _flying_ –_!_

"- _up here!_" I shouted, feeling the hugest, silliest grin break across my face, and I shouted again, louder, recklessly waving my arms, feeling my stomach drop away as the broomstick swooped and oh Oz, I was _free, _I was _free -! _

"Up here, you fools, _I'm up here!_"

They froze, heads throwing back one by one, jaws dropped to the floor. I felt a laugh splutter out from my lips – the sight was so ridiculous! – and waved, beamed, tossed my hair back – they didn't know what to do with themselves! Oz, they were hopeless, gawping moronically at me _twenty feet above them…!_

So I let myself laugh. I imagined them telling _him, _telling their beloved so-called wizard how I'd slipped through their fingers, how I'd escaped them all, how I'd escaped _him_…

"Shoot her!" a solider yelled from the very back of the squad. I stopped laughing. Next second, the air was clustered with bullets; whistling past my ear, biting at the twigs of the broomstick, Oz, _real live _bullets. I ducked down, flattening myself against the handle. My heart seemed to jump right into my mouth as we hurtled downwards, upwards, downwards again – dodging the crumbling wood beams, the bullets swirling like some bizarre slate-grey blizzard around us –

"- leave her alone! No! Please – Elphie -!"

_Don't Glinda, don't! _I moaned inwardly, keeping my head down and trying, _trying _to concentrate, to summon the right words, the right spell, _think, _Elphaba, _think…!_

"Reinforcements – we need reinforcements -!"

"- someone fetch the Madam, we need a sorceress -!"

_CRACK._

Three feet above me, the cavernous attic ceiling shuddered. _Yes. _Hand flailing, I gritted my teeth and dragged the wood, the feeling, the solid _power _towards me, cutting a cleft as wide and long as I could make it, then _pushing,_ crunching and splintering the ceiling _up_ and _out – _I couldn't risk hurting Glinda with any stray debris – till it wasn't the imprisoning, windowless attic cocooned above me…but the open night sky. Silken indigo and stretching as far as the eye could see; endless, unlimited, _unlimited…_

_"_Stop her!" a familiar woman's voice screeched from below as I pelted upwards. "_Stop her…!_"

_…just you try, _I thought, closing my eyes. Stupid, reckless thing to do with the bullets snapping at you from every direction, but I didn't care. I didn't care. The night air was cool, lapping at my face and hair and cloak as though it too was hoping to catch me, restrain me, hold me down. _Ha. _

I was passed all that, now.

"_Elphie -!_"

– _me, _you idiots, not Glinda, _not Glinda…_

"_I'm the one you want!_"

The doors burst open; more guards cascading into the room, losing Glinda in their midst. She cried out. I strained my voice to yell, to scream, to make them hear every word;

"_It's me! It's me!_"

"- Elphie - !" Glinda's voice rang out from the mob, a cry in the dark, but I hardly heard her over my own laughter, _laughter, _I'm flying, _look _at me, just _look…!_

"_…it's ME…!_"


End file.
